Politics and views in the United States

New York considers joining the national redistricting arms race. Tennessee considers new maps heavily favoring the GOP and the White House insists progress is being made to end the Iran War.

Transcript

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

I know our legislature is prepared to work together with all of us in a concerted effort to fight back with everything we have.

We did not start this fight, but we're prepared to end it.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul says the state is preparing to join the national redistricting battle.

While the state legislature would draw up the new maps, they'd have to get voter approval.

Most Americans oppose gerrymandering and favor independent redistricting commissions, But a constitutionally created New York commission didn't head off a contentious process two years ago.

Empowered by the Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act, several southern states are redrawing maps, aiming to break up heavily Democratic districts and help Republicans keep their Slim House majority.

A hastily called special session in Tennessee is debating maps which could eliminate the state's lone blue district.

Democratic State Senator Jeff Yarbrough says lawmakers are being called to break state law.

For more than five decades, Tennessee law has explicitly prohibited this legislature from coming in in the middle of a 10-year period and redrawing political lines for congressional districts.

That's the law.

Democrats say a similar law was just broken in Florida, and the redistricting arms race was a key factor in Indiana's primary, with President Donald Trump targeting GOP state senators who voted down new maps there.

Early returns say at least three of those targeted Republicans have lost, although another has won.

The White House says the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is holding in spite of attacks by both sides.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Cain says Iran fired on commercial vessels nine times, seized two container ships, and attacked American forces more than ten times since fighting was supposed to stop.

But he says neither that nor the Navy sinking armed Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz represents a full return to combat.

The president says at the request of allies, including Pakistan, he is pausing the just-started Project Freedom, where U.S. warships escort vessels through the strait.

And Secretary of State Marco Rubio insists none of this is military action that would, by law, require the approval of Congress.

If they're attacking us or they're attacking a ship, you need to respond to that.

You're not going to let some fast boat come up on the ship and shoot it up.

We're going to respond to it.

Another War Powers resolution on Iran failed to pass the Senate last week.

Congressional leaders appear unconcerned about the war passing a 60-day legal deadline.

And with the national average for gas approaching 450, Trump says spiking oil prices are a small price to pay for stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

I also thought oil would go up to 200, 250, maybe 300.

And I know it will be short term, but I look today, it's like at 102.

And that's a very small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon from people that are really mentally deranged.

International arms experts say Iran has never made the decision to build a nuclear weapon, but now has a similar capacity to do so that it had before the war started.

I'm Edwin J. Viera for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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